HENEQUEN-THE YUCATAN FIBER
BY E. H. THOMPSON,
U. S. CONSUL AT PROGRESO, MEXICO
N ancient times the agave, or hene
quen,* was one of the most im
portant plants of the peninsula.
At a time when most of Europe was
in the pall of utter darkness, when the
" Parisii " lived in caves and the Gauls
in " wattled huts," the priests and rulers
of Yucatan lived in stone temples and
palaces. Up the steep sides of the myriad
pyramids were carried great blocks and
sculptured columns.
To move these mighty masses of lime
stone no powerful engines were at hand,
but the Batabs of Yucatan, like the rulers
of ancient Egypt, had little use for me
chanical devices. Human muscle and
ropes of agave (henequen) were all
sufficient. If ten ropes and a hundred
slaves were not enough, a hundred ropes
and a thousand slaves were not lacking.
The ancient artists made use of the fiber
in their work. They were not content
to make the figure; they made the
skeleton, and upon the bones and in the
flesh, like the cords and muscles of
the body, they placed cords and plaited
bands of fiber. Close examination in
dicates that the fiber used was that of
the yaxci plant. Over the imbedded
muscles and flesh they placed a thin,
hard wash of stucco to represent the
skin and surface pigments. The writer
has examined many dozen specimens of
the broken figures of stucco wherein
are plainly shown the casts and the knots
and braid, even the very character of the
fiber.
The primeval inhabitants probably did
not at first attempt to extract the fiber
* The fiber is often called Sisal grass or Sisal
hemp, though it is neither a grass nor a hemp.
The name " Sisal"' was applied to it because it
originally reached the outer world through the
port of that name.
from the thick pulp, but took the leaf
and wilted it in the fire, then split it,
and used the splits as thongs. The leaves
so treated make thongs of great strength,
and as they dry they bind with wonder
ful force.
In the primitive forms of
habitation in the region, the mud and
wattle " nas'" are bound together by
these shreds of fiber-wilted leaves. They
are shapely, water-tight, and durable,
and the native builder's only tool is a
heavy, sharp-edged knife. Not a spike
or nail or metal of any kind enters into
the building.
Later the people found that if they
cleaned off the thick pulp and the green
corrosive juice they could get a firmer
hold and so bind tighter. Then they
learned to twist the shreds, and this idea
led to the making of ropes and cords.
Toward the end of the eighteenth cen
tury, when there happened to be a
scarcity of hemp for the cordage of the
Royal Spanish Navy, search was made
for a new material to eke out the supply
from Manila. Some one told of the fiber
used by the Campeche people in Yuca
tan. A royal commission was ordered
to investigate, and its report, made in
1783, gave unstinted praise to the fiber.
For a few years quite a little henequen
was sent to Europe. Then with the
collapse of Spanish commerce the de
mand for it ceased and for half a century
its existence seems to have been forgot
ten by the world.
Meanwhile the people of Yucatan
grew poorer and poorer until, in their
desperation as to how to get money
to buy the necessities of life, some
bright merchants thought of the fibrous
plant which fifty years before had had
commercial value. An association was
formed and they began to experiment